Senior Alex Figgins begins his descent down Greens Bottom, but as he gains speed, the world blurs into a dizzying spin, and pavement scrapes down his side and leaves him in the hospital for three days.
“I’ve seen that dude hurt himself plenty of times and get right back up,” senior Braden Grass said.
Recently, Figgins has been able to get back on his boards after an injury.
“He just came back from a back injury he got while trying to land a new trick,” junior Jackson Bridwell said.
Even after his injuries, Figgins hasn’t considered quitting, looking back on the person who sparked his boarding journey.
“The first skateboarder I saw was Jamie Floyd. I used to watch clips of him hitting the most insane rail grinds,” Figgins said.
In elementary school, Figgins started getting experience on a board.
“In fifth grade, I started on a penny board. It was like 37 bucks. I remember because I saved up for it. Then I started going up and down my street because it has a slight slope, so it’s pretty easy,” Figgins said.
Instead of buying a premade board to start his journey, Figgins built his own.
“I started longboarding when I was 14, and I built the board by cutting and shaping it on cardboard, cut out a stencil, traced and glued the two pieces of plywood together. Then I put the trucks on after letting it dry for a few days,” Figgins said.
Figgins used longboarding as a way to express himself and release stress.
“It’s also just given me a good way to get emotions out, I liked doing it in my free time. It was a good adrenaline rush longboarding down the hills in my neighborhood since they had bigger wheels so you can go faster than on a skateboard,” Figgins said.
As time went by, he started perfecting techniques and landing harder tricks. In perfecting new tricks on his board.
“He focuses on the process when he skates, he just wants to make sure everything’s fluent, perfect, no mishaps, no mess ups,” Grass said.
Videos of boarders going very fast grabbed Figgins’ attention and sparked his interest in longboarding — even when those boarders crashed.
“The first videos I saw were the races, and I just saw people wiping out on turns because they go into them really fast,” Figgins said.
Ultimately, the same events would happen to him while longboarding down Greens Bottom.
“I was going probably around 25 miles an hour, and the board just slipped from under my feet. It scraped my side and knuckles pretty badly. I was in the hospital for three days,” Figgins said.
Undeterred, Figgins said he learned from the experience.
“It taught me a big lesson to not rush into big things that I actually need to be fully prepared for,” Figgins said.
Figgins’ road to mastery was paved with injuries. Still, Grass said Figgins’ attitude remains composed.
“He’s nonchalant when trying new tricks: if he messes up, he messes up. If he lands it, he lands it. It’s just how he is,” Grass said.